Moonlight

Chakpii! Wooo! ! ! We have gathered On grandfather’s stoneseats After a hurried meal, This moonlight... Assemble, children, and hearken To the tales we know And heard from Our fathers... Chakpii! Wooo! ! ! Oruru otu mgbe (Once Upon a Time) The full moon, naked as birth, stood. The silent leaves of mother forests Listened; All sternness loosened In the face of the moon... Conundrums, Pulses, Quizzes, Proverbs... A parched and famished ground once, Now elated with Grown ears; feet below in the Wondering, dark and lonely soil Chakpii! Wooo! ! ! Oruru otu mgbe... No distinction, For among kinsmen A child is the father of a man. Charged upon native principles, Conundrums, Songs, Quizzes, Chants, Oaths, Verse, Pulses... Fortified in sponge-weave, And voices coming from the one Gong-hole Scare Cultural invasions, Scientific blackmail, Traditional irregularities... Wafting fraternity, The lunar concern ceases. But we do not grope In the dark, For each eye is the other’s Lamp.